February 2010 – Denseman on the Rattis

First anniversary

2010/02/28 12:00

Thomas and I
Originally uploaded by PhylB

Today it’s exactly one year ago that I wed my beloved Phyllis!

So much has happened since then – Amaia was conceived and born, I left Collins, and Phyllis and I started up our own company – but it still feels like yesterday.

It was definitely one of the best days of my life. 🙂

ECONOMICS · EN

We were deceived: Q4 GDP was revised down, not up

2010/02/27 23:53

When the revised estimate for Q4’s GDP growth was announced to be 0.3% (up from 0.1%), I was a bit surprised, because I didn’t think Q4 seemed to be all that wonderful. However, Edmundo has now analysed the underlying figures and it turns out that GDP was actually revised down, not up. His graph is not very clear, though, so here’s my attempt at explaining what happened. The blue line shows the old estimates from January: Q3 GDP was estimated at some £313bn, and Q4 GDP at […]

DA · KIDS

Fingersuttende Amaia

2010/02/21 23:41

I’ve got sore eyes 🙁 Originally uploaded by PhylB Sutter er ikke nær så udbredte i Skotland som i Danmark. (De har en idé om, at man ikke kan kombinere amning med sutter, så det er kun de babyer, der får flaske fra begyndelsen, der får sutter.) Men Amaia har (som Anna før hende) et meget stort suttebehov, så når der ikke lige er et bryst i nærheden, er den eneste måde at tilfredsstille hende på ofte at stikke en finger i munden på hende. Hvis hun […]

EDUCATION · EN

Applying the Oxbridge model to universities in the internet age

2010/02/20 09:25

University College Originally uploaded by Lawrence OP My alma mater is like most universities in that it is a single institution that does research, teaches students and awards degrees. However, Oxford and Cambridge use a different model, the collegiate system: The collegiate system is at the heart of the University’s success, giving students and academics the benefits of belonging to both a large, internationally renowned institution and to a smaller, interdisciplinary, academic college community. It enables leading academics and students across subjects and year groups, and from […]

EN · POLITICS

Underemployment

2010/02/17 23:25

arbeitslos Originally uploaded by yüting The Independent’s Sean O’Grady has written a good blog posting about underemployment. He thinks that the rise in underemployment (that is, people working less than they want to) is going to create a much more unequal society: “Those who have traditional full time secure jobs with a pension are increasingly a blessed minority – the rest of the nation is scrabbling away trying to get work where and when they can, with not even paid holidays, let alone a final salary pension […]

EN · MEDIA

Consigning DVDs and books to history

2010/02/16 23:39

DIY Book Scanner Originally uploaded by PugnoM When people go from storing their music on CDs to using harddisks and MP3-players, they can fairly easily convert their CDs. I’m sure one of the reason the iPod got so popular was because iTunes makes this process really easy. However, the same doesn’t really apply to books and films. People don’t tend to rip all their DVDs and then consign them to the loft, and this is not just because typical harddisks aren’t large enough to store a family’s […]

CULTURE · EN · LINGUISTICS · SCIENCE

Anĝaĝinax̂

2010/02/11 10:33

Unangax Aleut Dancers Originally uploaded by javacolleen Danish newspapers are reporting that Danish scientists have decoded the DNA from an individual from the Greenlandic Saqqaq culture (which died out completely). According to their results, they were most closely related to the Aleut people. If this is the case, I don’t quite understand why they called the individual Inuk (“person” in Greenlandic), rather than anĝaĝinax̂, which is the modern Aleut word. Hmmm, I wonder whether the Aleuts could demand to get Greenland back from the Inuits? 😉

CRIME · EN · GAMES

Theft as marketing

2010/02/27 09:21

It looks like Sony have vandalised an important landmark in Amsterdam in order to promote a new game (hat-tip: Dina). It probably seemed like a fun idea to Sony’s marketing department, but I do hope they will be prosecuted harshly, because it sets a very dangerous precedent if you can commit crimes without punishment if it’s for marketing purposes. I mean, in the first instance it might only be the letters in Hollywood’s logo that get stolen, but what will the next step be? Will you be […]

EN · POLITICS

Brown the bully

2010/02/24 20:56

Bully Originally uploaded by trix0r The revelations of the past few days that Brown is a paranoid bully cannot have come as much of a surprise for readers of this blog – this is exactly what I surmised nearly two three years ago. Some people have come to his defence saying that he’s just forceful, or troubled, or focused. I’m sure most bullies have psychological issues, but that doesn’t excuse them. A bully is defined by their acts, not by their mental health (the CED defines a […]

ELECTION · EN · POLITICS

A Future Fair For All

2010/02/20 23:49

A Future Fair For All Originally uploaded by viralbus It’s great to see that Labour have realised that what we all really need is to forget about the recession and have more fun. In particular, they will now build a huge Future Fair for us all, by which I assume they mean a science fiction-themed fun fair. I hope it’ll be built close to Glasgow so that we can go often.

ELECTION · EN · POLITICS

General Election asap?

2010/02/19 23:59

Polling Station Originally uploaded by hugovk There are rumours that the general election will be called tomorrow. It seems unlikely that the Queen will agree to this during the weekend, but I guess that Brown could be seeing her Monday morning. It would make sense – the risk of a double-dip recession is now so great that it would be sensible to get it over with before things get worse. However, the signs are subtle: A tweet, James Purnell stepping down now, the unveiling of Labour’s campaign […]

CULTURE · EN · SCIENCE

Myanmar/Burma and the US against the rest of us

2010/02/18 23:20

International Measuring System of Units by Country Originally uploaded by ChartsBin According to this map (click on it for more information), there are now only two countries in the world that haven’t adopted the metric system: Myanmar/Burma and the US. It’s a bit strange to see that the UK has been allowed the colour blue – perhaps they should have assigned a different colour to countries that have changed over officially, but where people still use different units in practice. I just wish there was a way […]

ECONOMICS · EN

The Bank of England are lousy forecasters

2010/02/17 09:05

Bank Of England Originally uploaded by John Godwin Guildford I was, needless to say, not terribly surprised by yesterday’s jump in inflation. Many commentators clearly believe the Bank of England’s forecast that inflation will come down sharply during 2010. This is not really my expectation – so long as this country is depending on imports, and so long as the pound continues to be weak, I can’t see inflation dropping significantly. However, it wasn’t till I read this article by Hamish McRae that I realised how lousy […]

EN · FOODDRINK · OBITUARY

The end of El Bulli

2010/02/14 11:49

El Bulli 2007 Originally uploaded by loremipsum I’m sorry to read that El Bulli will close down. Given that it’s been rated the world’s best restaurant for several years, I’ve always had a desire to go there, but I had to contend myself with a book about it Phyllis gave me for Christmas two years ago. I guess it was inevitable, though. That type of innovative cuisine can’t stay at the top forever, so they had to choose between slipping down the rankings at some point, or […]

EN · GARDENING

The year of the home-grown potato

2010/02/12 21:02

What with daffodils and crocuses appearing in the garden, I guess it’ll soon be time to decide what to grow this year. Last year Phyllis was quite upset that I forgot to grow potatoes, and my life was only saved by a few plants that appeared out of nowhere (or rather, I must have left a few tubers in the ground the year before). So this year is to become the year of the home-grown potatoes. However, which varieties should we grow? It’d be nice to grow […]

ELECTION · EN · POLITICS

Who'll benefit from AV?

2010/02/10 22:21

There’s an interesting article on the BBC analysing what would have happened if AV had been introduced in 1983. The assumption is that people wouldn’t have made any change to their first preference (and I think this is quite doubtful), but it’s still very interesting: The conclusion is there wouldn’t have been any change to the winning party, but interestingly, the Conservatives would have been completely wiped out and replaced by the LibDems back in 1997. I would prefer a proper proportional system (such as d’Hondt), but […]

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